CMAJ Readers' Forum

India's hungry mosquitoes

Online posting: February 26, 1997
Published in print: April 15, 1997 CMAJ 1997;156:1121
Re: Malaria in Canada, CMAJ 1997;156:57 [full text / texte complet]
My husband, Dr. Curtis A. Steele, and I have just returned from India. We learned all we could about malaria before the trip and followed advice, and I hope we will not acquire the disease. We offer some additional information based on our experience.

Arriving in the Bombay airport at 2 a.m. -- most flights from abroad arrive in the middle of the night -- hundreds of travellers stand in line in a space where mosquitoes abound. To prevent being bitten, visitors must apply an insect repellent before landing. We did not do this and were each bitten dozens of times before arriving at the immigration desk.

Window screens are seldom used in India. During our travels we saw only one screened window, and a few more with lace serving a partial screening function. Even in our air-conditioned hotel the bathroom window had a grille, not a screen, between us and the outdoors. Screen doors do not exist -- outdoors and indoors are one.

There was nothing from which to hang a bed net in any of the places we stayed, expensive hotels or otherwise. We find it impossible to imagine being in India and not being bitten by mosquitoes, unless one stays covered in a completely effective mosquito repellent.

Nancy Porter-Steele, PhD
Halifax, NS
helthpsy@atcon.com


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